The big problem with Ministers pooh-poohing the claim that the bill for HS2 will not be £80B, is that they are not subject to any retribution.
By the time the final bill is made known to the British Public, we will be a generation on from here.
Those Ministers not having already had prayers said over them, will be retired from office and may be safely ensconced as Directors of the companies presenting the bill.
They have no accountability, any more than those responsible for The Dome and numerous other financial catastrophe’s that the present generation are having to face the cost of.

The HS2 isn’t something that politicians can lay at the doors of the Banks, The E.U., The European Court of Justice, NHS Trusts, or the privatised Utility companies.
To all appearances, it is something that they are claiming credit for, rather than their E.U. friends.

Let’s have an element of accountability.

There have been calls for Police etc. to have their pension pots seized for cases where they have mis-used their official positions.

I suggest that all members of the Cabinet involved in such matters take corporate responsibility.
Those Ministers claiming that the bill for HS2 will not rise above the £42B (or whatever figure they are prepared to admit to) should sign an agreement to forfeit any pension tied to their official roles, as well as any private remuneration that can be tied to companies involved with HS2 contracts in any form.
I would suggest similar penalties for Civil Servants, except that they have the defence of having to comply with the wishes of their political master’s, no matter how mendacious, they are.
If every Cabinet decision had had to be tied to an accountability clause, then perhaps Tony Blair might have had more difficulty in dragging us into an illegal war, perhaps Gordon Brown would have thought twice before bailing out the banks and perhaps George Osborne would have been in less of a hurry to sell them back into private owbership, ata a discount, as soon as the regained profitability.